The present invention relates to an opening/closing door mechanism and an apparatus having the mechanism and, more particularly, to a mechanism suitably applied to an apparatus for performing one or both of recording and reproducing operations with respect to a medium stored in a cartridge having a predetermined shape.
A conventional recording/reproducing apparatus, which uses, so to speak, a disk cartridge as a recording medium has been put into practice. The disk cartridge is obtained by rotatably housing a magnetic disk represented by a 3.5-inch flexible magnetic disk in a cartridge having a predetermined shape. A recording/reproducing operation is performed after this disk cartridge is inserted in the apparatus. The cartridge is ejected after the operation.
A recording/reproducing apparatus of this type has an opening/closing door arranged on a front panel of the apparatus. The door is pushed open when a cartridge containing a floppy disk (to be referred to an FD hereinafter) is manually inserted into an opening portion, and is automatically closed upon ejection of the cartridge.
More specifically, in general, an opening/closing door which is always biased in a closing direction at, e.g., an opening portion of a front panel, is axially supported on the front panel to be pivotal. When an FD cartridge is inserted into the opening portion to be translated, the door is opened while a distal end portion of the door is in slidable contact with an upper surface portion of the FD cartridge. During a recording/reproducing operation upon insertion of the FD cartridge, the contact state is kept to obtain dust- and sound-proof effects.
With such an operation of the opening/closing door, dust- and sound-proof effects during a recording/reproducing operation using an FD cartridge are obtained, and an improvement in appearance and a dust-proof function during a nonuse period of the apparatus are realized.
A home video tape recorder (VTR) uses a video tape cassette formed by incorporating a magnetic tape wound around a supply reel and a take-up reel in a cartridge. In this apparatus, an opening/closing door through which a video tape cassette is inserted and ejected has a function of automatically opening/closing when an inserting/ejection operation is performed. The home VTR has such an automatic opening/closing door because the apparatus has a margin in terms of outer dimensions. More specifically, in the home VTR, in order to prevent a recording/reproducing mechanism on the VTR main body side from interfering with an opening/closing operation of the opening/closing door when a video tape cassette is inserted/ejected, for example, a structure for lowering the video tape cassette, which is inserted through the opening/closing door, from the insertion position can be arranged on the VTR side.
According to the above-described conventional opening/closing door for an FD cartridge, the distal end portion of the door, which is always biased to pivot in the closing direction at the opening portion, is brought into contact with the upper surface of the FD cartridge so as to realize dust- and sound-proof functions. Therefore, the VTR is used while the rear end face as a portion of the FD cartridge and its vicinity area are exposed.
Since the VTR is used while the rear end face as a portion of the FD cartridge and its vicinity area are exposed, satisfactory dust- and sound-proof functions cannot be performed. Especially in a magneto-optical disk apparatus or the like using a recording medium having a high recording density, a satisfactory dust-proof function may not be ensured.
If an elevating mechanism for a medium is to be arranged to arrange an automatic opening/closing door capable of sufficiently opening a medium insertion opening as in the above-described home VTR, a medium cannot be horizontally inserted and cannot be horizontally ejected after the VTR is used. Therefore, the overall height of the magneto-optical disk apparatus is undesirably increased.